Requiem so sweet we forgot what it lamented (PoemTalk #89)

Nathaniel Mackey, 'Day after Day of the Dead'

Tsitsi Jaji, Herman Beavers, and William J. Harris joined Al Filreis in the new Wexler Studio at the Kelly Writers House to discuss a poem by Nathaniel Mackey, “Day after Day of the Dead” (text). The poem appears about a third of the way through Mackey’s book Nod House (New Directions, 2011). As is typical of Mackey’s work, especially in recent years, the book includes poems that are individually new installments in one of two ongoing long poems, one called “Mu” and another called “Song of the Andoumboulou.” Our poem is the 48th part of the “Mu” series, and it follows immediately after the 68th “Song of the Andoumboulou.” Our recording of “Day after Day of the Dead” comes from a “Close Listening” show hosted by Charles Bernstein at the Kelly Writers House in February 2011, some six months before Nod House was published.

Tsitsi comments on the appearance and also the disappearance of the “we.” Billy Joe reads “we” as lovers, at points, but wonders what traumatic break this “we” has endured here. Disaster of some sort. A flood? (Tsitsi mentions New Orleans.) An attack? (There are references to the 2004 Madrid bombings earlier in the book.) Herman suggests that the collective journey could remind one of the Middle Passage. This for him partly explains why the ensemble in the poem no longer wants to know what soul was. “You actually try to forget what soul is,” Herman offers, “so it cannot be taken from you.” All agree that the speaker and his cohort or “philosophical posse” are survivors of some sort, and that the poem is marked by the effort at witnessing and testifying to others’ deaths and (for the speaker and his colleagues) one’s own near-death. They eat with great appetite — glad to be bodies, glad to be alive — yet the repast is morbid (“knucklebone soufflé” is on the menu).

There’s so much more to discuss: echoes of The Waste Land and in them a “response to modernist formalism”; changes that occur as they do in a jazz solo; “Mu” as a rudiment of MUsic; “the collective thinking one has to engage in if you are an ensemble of musicians”; art as a response to scarcity; the pure poetry of drones and hisses; Mu as the epic story of humanity; the poetics of reprise; certain kinds of wholeness that are not available to us; and making something positive or at least productive out of “discrepant engagement.”

PoemTalk #89 was directed and engineered by Zach Carduner and Tyler Burke, was produced by Al Filreis, and edited by Amaris Cuchanski. You can find PoemTalk at Jacket2 of course, but also in iTunes. If you subscribe to podcasts, please subscribe to ours.

POEMTALK is a collaboration of the Kelly Writers House, PennSound, and the Poetry Foundation. PoemTalk’s producer and host is Al Filreis, our engineer is Zach Carduner, and our editor is the same talented Zach Carduner (whose predecessors were Amaris, Cuchanski, Allison Harris, and for most of the early episodes, Steve McLaughlin). PoemTalk is also available on iTunes. Click this link to subscribe; or go to your iTunes music store and type "PoemTalk" in the search box.

GATHERING PARADISE:At the end of each episode of PoemTalk, we gather paradise, commending one person or trend or happening in the poetry world. Here is a sampling of paradisal gathering across the episodes:[] Thinking about Williams's sense of the postindustrial way we live, Linh suggested we look at Mike Davis on "our living arrangements" (PT #1). [] Rachel celebrated the publication of the new bpNichol Reader, Alphabet Game (PT #3).[] Erica Kaufman commended David Trinidad's new book, The Late Show, in particular the poem "From the Life of Joe Brainard" (PT#5). [] Kenny Goldsmith happily pointed out a feature on UbuWeb in the March 2008 issue of Artforum (PT#6). [] Ron Silliman recommended a poetic sequence by Philip Whalen entitled The Children, based on photographs by Aram Saroyan (PT #8). [] C.A. Conrad recommends State of the Union: 50 Political Poems from Wave Books (PT #13). [] David Grazian, thinking of poetics-minded sociologists, wants us to read Loic Wacquant's Body & Soul: Notebooks of an Apprentice Boxer (PT #18). [] Wystan Curnow wants us to look at jackbooks.com (PT #22). [] Frank Sherlock urges us all to read Joe Massey (PT #23).[] Natalie Gerber commends the Dodge Poetry Festival and its new-ish YouTube channel (PT #24).[] Joe Milutis suggests we all check out the work Danny Snelson has been doing (PT #25).[] We all praised Lorenzo Thomas's Don't Deny My Name: Words and Music and the Black Intellectual Tradition, esp. Aldon Nielsen who had the happy/unhappy task of editing it posthumously (PT #26).[] Jerome Rothenberg points us to two new anthologies: Mark Weiss’ The Whole Island: Six Decades of Cuban Poetryand Cecilia Vicuna and Ernesto Livon-Grosman’s The Oxford Book of Latin American Poetry (PT #27).[] Rachel Blau DuPlessis suggests Prismatic Publics: Innovative Canadian Women’s Poetry and Poetics, edited by Kate Eichhorn and Healther Milne, new from Coach House Books (PT #28).[] Linh Dinh recommends poet Mathias Svalina’s new book Destruction Myth(PT #29).[] Joey Yearous-Algozin lets us know about a new critical journal out of Buffalo called “Wild Orchids" (PT #31).[] Nada Gordon commends Brandon Brown’s three chapbooks: Tooth Fairy, The Orgy, and Your Mom’s a Falconress (PT #33).[] Bob Perelman encourages us to watch the recording of Laura Elrick’s March 2010 reading at the Kelly Writers House (PT #34).[] Sarah Dowling wants us to download Divya Victor’s book Sutures on Lulu (PT #35). [] Don Share is thrilled about Stanford’s new edition of Larry Eigner’s collected poems, four volumes of more than 3,000 poems reproduced in Courier font (PT #36). [] Julia Block is reading Philadelphia poet Kevin Varrone’s Passyunk Lost, out from Ugly Duckling Presse (PT #38).[] Tracie Morris recommends Sekou Sundiata’s jazz album The Blue Oneness of Dreams(PT #39). [] Jamie-Lee Josselyn reminds us about Joe Brainard’s PennSound author page; in particular, his “I remember” recordings (PT #40).[] Al Filreis suggests we check out Richard Sieburth’s new edition of New Selected Poems and Translations by Ezra Pound (PT #41).[] Fred Wah points us to the translation work that Italian-Canadian poet Louis Cabri is doing (PT #44).[] Charles Alexander is reading Amnesiacby poet Duriel E. Harris, out from Sheep Meadow Press (PT #45).[] Joan Retallack commends Caroline Bergvall on her new book Meddle English(PT #46).[] Jessica Lowenthal is enamored with Erica Baum’s project Dog Ear, some of which is available on Jacket2 (PT #47).[] Mike Hennessey tells us about CA Conrad’s video journal of contemporary poetry, Jupiter 88 (PT #50).[] Greg Djanikian would like us to watch the recording from Jane Hirschfeld’s visit to the Kelly Writers House (PT #52).[] Bob Perelman coins the term “high flarf” when recommending Ben Friedlander’s book Citizen Cain(PT #54).[] Katie Price suggests Craig Dworkin’s book Parse(PT #55).

From left to right, Jerome Rothenberg, Jeffrey Robinson, and Charles Bernstein discuss Robert Duncan for PoemTalk #27.